Love One Another

 No community can function without leadership. As Christians, we need leaders, elders, preachers, teachers and managers. Parents must have authority over their children. But when Christianity is dominated by hierarchy, we have lost our way.

But he said to them, “The kings of the gentiles lord it over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. 
But not so with you; rather, the greatest among you must become like the youngest and the leader like one who serves. Lk 22:25–26 NRSVue

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. Jn 13:34 NRSVue

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Jn 15:12 NRSVue

I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. Jn 15:17 NRSVue

Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. Rom 13:8 NRSVue

Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Rom 14:19 NRSVue

Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. Rom 15:7 NRSVue

For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 1 Cor 7:4 NRSVue 

The essence of Christian marriage is not male dominance but equal partnership. 

… being subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Eph 5:21 NRSVue

There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Gal 3:28 NRSVue

Gender based hierarchy violates the key biblical principle of mutual love and respect.

Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, Eph 4:26 NRSVue

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Eph 4:32 NRSVue

Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Col 3:13 NRSVue

Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, 1 Th 4:9 NRSVue

Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing. 1 Th 5:11 NRSVue

See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. 1 Th 5:15 NRSVue

Are Men and Women Equal?

In the Old Testament all the priests were men. There were only kings in Israel. 

When Abraham looked for a wife for his son, Rebecca had to leave her home and her family and come under the authority of Abraham and her husband Isaac.

Ancient Greek men believed women were a curse. A married woman was the personal property of her husband.

A Canadian woman married an Arab man. When she tried to leave her husband, she was not allowed to leave Saudi Arabia because according to their law, she was the personal property  of her husband. 

In Bible days, women were often little better than slaves. A Roman man was the owner of his family and he could divorce his woman and kill his children or slaves.

In the Roman Empire female babies were often simply allowed to die. 

A father would order his wife to abandon her newborn daughter on a hillside. The abandoned babies either died of hunger or cold or they were harvested by pimps and raised to be prostitutes. That was normal for those days and a wife dared not disobey her husband.

In the New Testament Jesus only chose men as his apostles.

How should we understand all this? Is it the will of God that men should always have authority over women?

In Bible times it was mostly so, as it still is in some parts of the world.
The Law of Moses allowed a man to divorce his wife if he just gave her a written letter of divorce. It was unthinkable for a woman to divorce her husband.

When Jesus spoke against easy divorce for men, the Pharisees appealed to the authority of Moses and the Scriptures.They asked Jesus why Moses allowed a man to legally divorce his wife.

For the religious Jews, the Law of Moses was the perfect expression of the Will of God.

Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. Matthew 19:8 (NIV) 

For Jesus, the Law of Moses was holy and true. It was given to Moses by God. But there was a higher law, the perfect plan of God at creation, before Adam and Eve fell into sin.

"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' 

and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? Matthew 19:4-5 (NIV) 

We are so familiar with these words, that we don’t realise how radical they are.

In Bible days a man married couple would live with their extended family, almost always the husband’s parents, as it still is the case in traditional societies in India, Africa and many other places. 

But Adam, whose only parent was God, prophesied the perfect will of God, that a man would leave his family and be united to his wife. Unheard of! This is not traditional patriarchy at all! 

After the Fall of Adam and Eve, God planned to restore humanity to His original design. This was to take place step by step and we have still not reached the end of the story. 

• The call of Abraham was one step. 
• The shaping of the chosen Hebrew people was another and giving of the Law was yet another but the Law of Moses was only one stage in God’s plan, not the blueprint for the final consummation.

What was God’s original design before sin came into the picture?

Genesis 1:26-27 (NIV) 26  Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." 

27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 

God gave the man and woman authority to rule over the earth. He gave the man no authority over the woman and the woman no authority over the man.

God’s guiding principle from the very beginning was partnership.

WOMEN'S ROLE AND GOD'S PURPOSE

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:27-28 (ESV) 

There are some who teach authority and hierarchy is the most important principle of God’s dealing with us. 

But before hierarchy came PARTNERSHIP. MALE and FEMALE He created THEM.

God told Adam and Eve to SUBDUE and HAVE DOMINION but this was secondary. 

Before DOMINION comes the command to BE FRUITFUL and MULTIPLY. This is through PARTNERSHIP, COOPERATION and sexual procreation. Sexual procreation is a picture of equal partnership. 

The man is stronger and more assertive but the woman is the one who bears and produces the new life in her body and from her body. Each partner is stronger than the other in a different way. 

The false spirit of religion tries to make a men bosses and women their servants but this is not God’s purpose in creation.

Genesis 2:18 (ESV) Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 

The word HELPER is the Hebrew word AZAR which is most often used to refer to GOD Himself as the Helper of mankind.

Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. Psalm 33:20 (NASB) 

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? Psalm 121:1 (NASB) 

Our help is in the name of the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. Psalm 124:8 (NASB) 

How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, Whose hope is in the LORD his God, Psalm 146:5 (NASB) 

The hierarchical relationship between man and woman was actually a consequence of the fall. When men are bossy masters over women, we should see this as a manifestation of the sinful nature.

To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”Genesis 3:16 (ESV)  

The New Covenant was introduced by Jesus, who was born of a woman. When Jesus was presented in the Temple 40 days after His birth, he was hailed by a woman who was a significant spiritual leader in the Temple in Jerusalem at a time when the official male priesthood was seriously corrupted.

Luke 2:36-38 (NKJV) Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity;  and this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.  And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. 

In first century Greco Roman culture and in post Babylonian Jewish tradition, a woman was not able to give evidence with the same authority as a man but the cross paid the penalty for the fall of mankind and women were restored to the position of equal dignity designed by God in the beginning. 

The first witness to the resurrection of Jesus was a woman and this was designed by God on purpose. 

Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons.  She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept.  And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. Mark 16:9-11 (NKJV)

Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. Mark 16:14 (NKJV)